David Skover

Biography

Professor Skover is the co-author of several books: Tactics of Legal Reasoning (Carolina Academic Press, 1986) (with Pierre Schlag), The Death of Discourse (Westview Press, 1996; Carolina Academic Press, 2nd ed. 2005) (with Ronald K.L. Collins), The Trials of Lenny Bruce (Sourcebooks, 2002) (with Ronald K.L. Collins), Mania (Carolina Academic Press, forthcoming 2010) (with Ronald K.L. Collins), and a work-in-progress entitled Dissent (Cambridge University Press, forthcoming 2011) (with Ronald K.L. Collins).

In 2003, Skover and his coauthor, Ron Collins, successfully petitioned Governor Pataki of New York State to posthumously pardon Lenny Bruce. In 2004, they received the Hugh Hefner First Amendment Award for The Trials of Lenny Bruce and their pardon effort.

Additionally, Professor Skover has authored or co-authored more than twenty scholarly articles in various journals, including the Harvard Law Review, Yale Law Journal, Stanford Law Review, Michigan Law Review, Texas Law Review, The Nation magazine, and encyclopedia articles in Encyclopedia of the American Constitution (Macmillan, 1991), Encyclopedia of the Supreme Court of the United States (Macmillan, 2008), and Yale Bibliographical Dictionary of American Law (Yale University Press, 2009).

Professor Skover appears frequently on network affiliate television and has been quoted in the national popular press (e.g. NYT, WSJ, CSM, etc.) on a spectrum of issues ranging from constitutional law to pop media culture and theory. He also is a regionally acclaimed opera and musical theater performer. "Skover Online," his personal Web site, contains much more information on his books, articles, and presentations - and even includes selections from his musical theater recordings on the "Interests & Activities" page.

Books

Mania: The Story of the Outraged and Outrageous Lives That Launched a Generation (forthcoming 2009) (with Ronald K.L. Collins).

Dissent (in progress) (with Ronald K.L. Collins).

The Trials of Lenny Bruce: the Fall and Rise of an American Icon (2002) (with Ronald K.L. Collins).

The Death of Discourse (1996; Carolina Academic Press 2d ed. 2004) (with Ronald K.L. Collins).

Tactics of Legal Reasoning (Carolina Academic Press 1986) (with Pierre Schlag).

Book Chapters

Powers of and Restraints on 'Our Federalism': State Authority Under the Federal Constitution, in State Constitutions in the Federal System, (Advisory Commission on Intergovernmental Relations 1989).

Book Contributions

Pardoning Lenny Bruce’s Language (Forward The Jewish Daily, January 2, 2004).

State Action Doctrine, in Encyclopedia of the American Constitution (Levy, Karst, & Mahoney, eds., MacMillan, 2d ed. 1991).

Political Question Doctrine, in Encyclopedia of the American Constitution (Levy, Karst, & Mahoney, eds., MacMillan, 2d ed. 1991).

Book Reviews

War Talk: Free Speech in Times of Armed Conflict, Legal Times, Nov. 1, 2004, at 26 (reviewing Geoffrey Stone, Perilous Times: Free Speech in Wartime (2004)).

Articles

Conceptions Course Book (in progress) (with Ronald K.L. Collins).

Lenny Bruce, Yale Bibliographical Dictionary of American Law (Yale University Press, forthcoming 2009) (with Ronald K.L. Collins).

Roth v. U.S. and Alberts v. U.S., Encyclopedia of the Supreme Court of the United States (Macmillan, forthcoming 2009).

What is War? Reflections on Free Speech in “Wartime”, 36 Rutgers L. J. 833 (2005) (with Ronald K.L. Collins).

Curious Concurrence: Justice Brandeis’ Vote in Whitney v. California, 2005 Sup. Ct. Rev. 333 (2005) (with Ronald K.L. Collins).

The Landmark Free Speech Case That Wasn't, 54 Case W. Res. L. Rev. 965 (2004) (with Ronald Collins).

Lesbigay Identity as Commodity, 90 Cal. L. Rev. 223 (2002) (with Kellye Y. Testy).

Constitution Should Tell it Like it Is, National L.J., January 18, 1999, at A25.

We're All Censors Now?, Books-on-Law, October 6, 1998, available at http://jurist.law.pitt.edu/lawbooks/revoct98.htm#cs (reviewing Robert C. Post, ed., Censorship and Silencing: Practices of Cultural Regulation (Getty Trust Publications, 1998)) (with Ronald K.L. Collins).

Speech and Power, Nation Magazine, July 21, 1998 at 12 (with Ronald K.L. Collins).

Afterword: New "Truths" and the Old First Amendment, 64 U. Cin. L. Rev. 1295 (1996) (Afterword to Noble Lies & The First Amendment: A Symposium on The Death of Discourse) (with Ronald K.L. Collins).

About the Cover, 64 U. Cin. L. Rev. 1191 (1996) (symposium on The Death of Discourse).

The Pornographic State, 107 Harv. L. Rev. 1374 (1994) (with Ronald K.L. Collins).

Commerce & Communication, 71 Tex. L. Rev. 697 (1993) (with Ronald K.L. Collins).

The Psychology of the First Amendment Scholarship: A Reply, 71 Tex. L. Rev. 819 (1993) (with Ronald K.L. Collins).

Pissing In the Snow: A Cultural Approach to the First Amendment, 45 Stan. L. Rev. 783 (1993), (with Ronald K.L. Collins).

Video & the Nation-Jury, Christian Science Monitor, May 11, 1992, at 19 (with Ronald Collins).

Art vs. obscenity—Drawing Distinctions, Christian Science Monitor, April 6, 1992, at 13 (with Ronald Collins).

Paratexts, 44 Stan. L. Rev. 509 (1992) (with Ronald K.L. Collins).

State Constitutional Law Interpretation: Out of "Lock-step" and Beyond "Reactive" Decisionmaking, 51 Mont. L. Rev. 243 (1990).

Commercialism v. Culture, Christian Science Monitor, September 19, 1990 (with Ronald Collins).

The First Amendment in an Age of Paratroopers, 68 Tex. L. Rev. 1087 (1990) (with Ronald K.L. Collins).

The First Amendment in Bold Relief: A Reply, 68 Tex. L. Rev. 1185 (1990) (with Ronald K.L. Collins).

The Senator and the Constitution: An Interview with Orrin G. Hatch, 16 Hastings Const. L.Q. 141 (1989) (with Ronald K.L. Collins).

The Two Meeses: Political Liability, Ideological Asset, Baltimore Sun, July 10, 1988, at E1 (with Ronald Collins).

Licenses and Restraints of 'Our Federalism:' State Power under the Federal Constitution in State Constitutional Law in the American Federal System (Advisory Commission on Intergovernmental Relations 1988).

The Future of Liberal Legal Scholarship, 87 Mich. L. Rev. 189 (1988) (with Ronald K.L. Collins).

Encyclopedia of the American Constitution, 86 Mich. L. Rev. 1257 (1988) (book review).

Book review: Reconstituting 'Original Intent:' A Constitutional Law Encyclopedia for the Next Century, 86 Mich. L. Rev. 1257 (1988)

Abortion Pickets Within Constitutional Right, Tacoma News Tribune, July 26, 1987, at E5.

Phoenix Rising and Federalism Analysis, 13 Hastings Const. L.Q. 271 (1986).

The Washington Constitutional State Action Doctrine: A Fundamental Right to State Action, 8 U. Puget Sound L. Rev. 221 (1985).

The Constitutionality of Limitations upon Donations to Political Committees in the 1976 Federal Election Campaign Act Amendments, 86 Yale L.J. 953 (1977).

Essay

Trial of ‘Angelheaded Hipsters:’ The Challenge to Howl, Legal Times, November 27, 2006, (reviewing Howl on Trial: The Battle for Free Expression, edited by Bill Morgan & Nancy Peters (City Lights Publishing, 2006)).